Page 10 of Wings of Ash & Flame
A metallicclangshattered the night’s silence. Alaire jolted awake at the sound. The heavy creak of rusted iron groaned as a cell door opened—much too close for comfort. The next sound was worse: a sharp, muffled cry.
Her body moved on instinct. Alaire scrambled to her feet and pressed herself against the bars, trying to see what was happening. The guards usually stationed along the wall weren’t there. Alaire’s gut screamed something wasn’t right.
Captain Verran emerged from the cell, dragging something—no, someone—by the hair.
Elodie.
He yanked her into Alaire’s direct line of sight. Blood matted her dark curls, her left leg bent at an angle that made Alaire’sstomach lurch. Another guard, one Alaire didn’t recognize, hauled her up roughly.
Elodie didn’t give in. She struggled against their hold, a whimper escaping her lips.
Alaire threw herself against the bars. “Elodie!” The scream tore from her throat. The world around her flashed red.
“Leave her alone!” she demanded.
Captain Verran smiled. “You should’ve accepted my offer when you had the chance.”
“She’s done nothing!” Alaire’s knuckles whitened as she gripped the iron, trying to pry the bars apart. “It’s me you want!”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Verran said smugly. “You’d come to me willingly eventually.”
“Please.” The word scraped like sand in her throat. She could take whatever he wanted to dole out, but Elodie had done nothing wrong. Obeyed every rule. Caused no problems. Not like her. She’d sworn never to beg, never to give in to what he wanted. But for Elodie… “I’ll do whatever you want.”
Even though they’d never spoken face-to-face, never hugged… even though they’d barely met, a bond had already sprouted between them. A bond forged by surviving something wretched together.
Elodie’s eyes widened. Even through the blood and pain, she managed to shake her head. “Don’t?—”
The baton connected with her temple. Thecrackechoed off the stone walls. Elodie went limp.
“No!” Alaire rattled the bars.
The captain looked positively elated.
Alaire gritted her teeth around the word. “Please.”
Verran smoothed his uniform, adjusting his cuffs. “I think I’ll let you sit with this for a few days to remember what happens when you continue clinging to your defiance. Something that could’ve been prevented if you’d given in sooner.”
They dragged Elodie away, her body painting dark streaks across the floor.
“Elodie!” Alaire’s voice broke on the last syllable.
Helplessness gnawed at her. The cage around her was a brutal reminder that she was truly trapped.
Silence, thick and suffocating, closed in like a noose, leaving her with nothing but rage.
She sank to the floor, hands still gripping the bars. All her planning. All her careful observations. Verran didn’t need to break her body.
He found something better to destroy.
Alaire didn’t know when or how, but she vowed: Captain Verran would die. Not tonight. Not quickly. But screaming. She would make sure of it.
Time moved differently after that night.
Days bled together. Weeks. Her once muscular form atrophied. She was slight and frail.
A slip of a thing waiting to die—that’s what life at Grimstone was. Waiting for the misery to end.
She woke expecting to hear Elodie’s voice. Silence answered her.
